For years you’ve been dreaming of hitting the open road, being your own boss, and making a solid living and now you’re ready. CDL in hand, vision of launching your own trucking company, but you need to get your feet wet with a larger carrier to learn the ropes and get some revenue. While you are picking a company to work for, the culture extends beyond the typical 9-to-5.
Get The Inside Scoop
Learning about the culture and inner workings of a company can be easier when looking at large companies, though depending on the size of your trucking driving school and past networking opportunities, it’s likely you’ll have a first or second-degree connection to a driver inside the company who should be able to give you a degree of insight into what to expect from this firm.
Do Your Homework
Review the company’s reputation, not just from what employees you know are saying, but do they have a good track record retaining drivers? Do they offer and support opportunities for employees to become contracted Owner-Operators? Are they equipped with any truck lease or loan programs to help drivers launch their businesses?
Other helpful information to research includes getting a read on the company’s age and financial health. Do they have longstanding relationships and no-contest contracts with load managers and freight customers or is every load bid out through a broker or load board?
Location
Depending on your future plans, you’ll want to be sure to choose a carrier who maintains healthy operations near your preferred service area, whether it’s your home base for over-the-road trucking or local or regional freight. If you are planning to incorporate as an Owner-Operator in the future, looking at the incorporation fees, schedule, and tax implications depending on state will be an important consideration.
Tractor Equipment Offered
As an employee or even contracted driver, you will be provided a tractor to drive, look into the track record of that equipment, in case you are required to bear the cost of any of the maintenance or should there be reliability concerns that will impact your uptime and take-home pay.
Compare With Others
It’s helpful to build a matrix of several trucking companies to help you better examine the pros and cons of each. It’s difficult to find negatives when only examining a single firm. By pulling in a few competitors in your evaluation, you may be surprised by the company offering the greatest career opportunity!
If your decision is still unclear after personal research, consider reaching out to a trucking industry recruiter. They are paid by the hiring trucking company, so there is virtually no risk for the driver on the hunt.